Spotify's Fresh Finds Forward Offers Independent Artists A Year Of Support After The Playlist
Spotify's new programme aims to back about 10,000 emerging artists a year with tools, sessions and wellness support, and Indian Fresh Finds acts are eligible.
A song gets onto an editorial playlist, the numbers jump for a week, and then the graph goes flat again. Most independent musicians know the shape. Spotify's Fresh Finds Forward programme, launched in September, is meant for the flat part.
It builds on Fresh Finds, the editorial playlists for independent, unsigned and early-career artists. Spotify says Fresh Finds has featured more than 80,000 artists in 127 countries over the past decade. The new programme aims to support around 10,000 a year.
What artists get
A year of benefits: early access to selected Spotify tools and features, openings through the company's touring and music video partnerships, and a Fresh Finds badge on the artist profile.
There are in-person and virtual sessions with Spotify staff and with artists who came through Fresh Finds earlier. Outside services are in the package as well, LANDR Studio Pro and Splice's Creator Plan among them, along with mental health and wellness support.
Some perks, free studio time for one, are limited to certain countries. Indian artists will see what applies to them when they sign up.
How to get in
Any artist added to a Fresh Finds playlist on or after 1 January 2026 can join through Spotify for Artists. Those who haven't been featured can pitch upcoming releases to the Fresh Finds editors from the same dashboard.
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The numbers so far
Since 2024, Spotify says, Fresh Finds has produced more than 128 million first-time artist discoveries, and close to 70 per cent of its streams come from someone hearing an artist for the first time. More than half of Fresh Finds artists later appear on other editorial playlists.
Joe Hadley, Spotify's global head of music content and partnerships, said the programme grew out of conversations with independent artists about the help they needed beyond a playlist slot.
Plenty of Indian independent musicians release without a label and do their own distribution. For them, the plainer items on the list, production software, a contact inside the platform, wellbeing support, are the ones that cost money elsewhere. The playlist already does the first listen. The programme is about the second.
(Source: Spotify press release)
